Last weekend only saw club members at various parkrun events around the country. The Bank Holiday weekend, however, gave us more interest with races at a wider variety of distances and terrain.
Along the M4, Cirencester runners had great success at Dorney Lake, site of the rowing events at London 2012, where Stuart Fitzgerald and Brian Harris took on the half marathon distance and Dave Bell ran the 10k. The course itself may be flat but is known to be exposed and challenging on a windy day and the mental resolve needed to complete multiple laps of a fairly uninteresting route is not to be underestimated.
Stuart and Brian were both delighted to run race PBs, despite Stuart feeling that things were slipping away from him at the 10 mile mark. Brian showed that his meticulous preparation for a marathon in the same location in 5 weeks time is paying dividends. By getting his pacing just right he improved on a PB set many years ago.
Despite his impressive time and 3rd place finish, Dave was a little disappointed with his race. His training has been going really well and he was hoping for a sub 33 minute finish. He reports feeling a bit out of sorts after the first couple of miles after maybe setting off a little hard. After momentarily considering pulling up half way, he gathered himself and completed the distance. He is now turning his attention to several half marathons in his Autumn diary.
29th August, Dorney Lake Events 10k, 10k, road
1 Danny Rock (Felixstowe RRC) 32.29 (32.27)
3 Dave Bell (Cirencester AC) 35.29 (35.25) – 2nd MV35
81 finished
29th August, Dorney Lake Events Half Marathon, 13.1 miles, road
1 Nick Impey (Ranelagh Harriers) 1.12.14 (1.12.07)
34 Stuart Fitzgerald (Cirencester AC) 1.25.47 (1.25.15)
69 Brian Harris 1.35.08 (1.34.29)
230 finished
On the parkrun scene, Cirencester runners were found around the local area and beyond.
Ollie Campbell took 1st place at Chippenham in what must have been an exciting race, he was just 8 seconds ahead of the 2nd placed athlete. Tom Purnell and Keith Firkin went to Swindon where Tom put in a strong performance to finish in 7th place.
Ruth Fulford, decided that Gloucester North was the place for her. A wise choice as she managed to take a few seconds off her age group record there. Ross Swain went to the cross country Killerton event and came home 18th of over 300 runners. Kate Sackett, as always, had a fine run at Stonehouse. Nea Sneddon-Jenkins was 1st lady at Tetbury.
At Cirencester, new club member Tom Payne, tested out a worrying back niggle that had threatened to curtail his marathon training. It didn’t stop him finishing in 18th place. Two of our youngest members ran new parkrun PBs. Very well done Isabella Stickney and Annabel Campbell.
28th August, parkrun, 5k, trail
Lydiard parkrun
1 Jason Mcginley (Unattached) 18.13
7 Tom Purnell (Cirencester AC) 19.18
97 Keith Firkin 25.38
298 finished
Gloucester North parkrun
1 Alexander Jones (Unattached) 16.06
69 Ruth Fulford (Cirencester AC) 29.00
120 finished
Killerton parkrun
1 Alfie Devine-Wright (Unattached) 18.52
18 Ross Swain (Cirencester AC) 22.01
304 finished
Stonehouse parkrun
1 Henry Sheffield (Unattached) 16.36
18 Kate Sackett (Cirencester AC) 22.51
79 finished
Chippenham parkrun
1 Ollie Campbell (Cirencester AC) 16.55
197 finished
Tilgate parkrun
1 Ben Short (Unattached) 16.20
98 Neil Broadley (Cirencester AC) 24.33
416 finished
Cirencester parkrun
1 Isaac Flanagan (Unattached) 19.00
18 Tom Payne (Cirencester AC) 23.09
49 Isabella Stickney 26.29
63 Nick Wall 27.36
80 Sam Timms 30.09
83 Richard Edwards 30.39
130 Annabel Campbell 38.51
131 Simon Campbell 38.58
139 finished
Tetbury Goods Shed parkrun
1 Paul Shea (Unattached) 18.20
22 Nea Sneddon-Jenkins (Cirencester AC) 22.12 – 1st Female
27 Alan Mcadam 24.02
44 Rachel Mcadam 25.36
120 finished
Stratford Park parkrun, Stroud
1 Nick Woolley (Unattached) 17.25
41 Brendan Mccarthy (Cirencester AC) 28.54
70 finished
Earlier in the week, Rob Forbes completed another of the spectacular ultra races he is well known for taking part in. This time it was the TDS or Traces des Ducs de Savoie. The route starts in Courmayeur in Italy, and finishes 147 km later in the French town of Chamonix. Along the way those taking part have to tackle over 9000 feet of climbing and descending and endure running at over 2500 feet of altitude at times. Whether they are able to enjoy the magnificent views of Mont Blanc is questionable. The very real peril of taking part in extreme events such as this was brought into sharp focus this year after the tragic death of a Czech runner. He very sadly died whilst tackling one of the very steep technical descents. Many congratulations to Rob on completing this huge challenge.
24th August, TDS (Courmayeur, Italy to Chamonix, France), 145km, trail
1 Erik-Sebastian Krogvig (Dynafit) 18.49.58
47 Rob Forbes (Cirencester AC) 25.01.16
212 finished
Also known to favour ultra running is Tim Ingham. At the time of writing there were no official results, but Sunday morning saw Tim successfully complete The Ridgeway Challenge. The 86 mile route follows The Ridgeway National Trail from Ivinghoe Beacon near Tring to the stone circle at Avebury. Tim describes it as a very tough race but an amazing adventure. The runners are well supported at check points along the way, with each being manned by a different running club and providing welcome food and drink. He was delighted to finish the race in a time of 21 hours 35minutes, taking 2 hours off his previous time, having run the event in 2019. Congratulations to Tim on another great achievement.
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